![]() Unlike other DoD space programs, the NTS-3 ground system development started before the satellite was built, Baron said. The ground control system, developed by Parsons Corp., will be operated at AFRL Space Vehicles Directorate headquarters at Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico.Įd Baron, senior vice president of Parsons’ space mission solutions, said compatibility testing with the satellite will be completed this summer. It also has new features designed to defeat spoofing. The satellite, built by 元Harris, will operate for one year in a near-geosynchronous orbit and will broadcast navigation signals from its phased array antenna, which can electronically steer signals to a desired region without physically moving the satellite.īiersgreen said a digital reprogrammable PNT signal generator allows new signal updates after launch so it can counter interference. Many of the questions he gets, Biersgreen added, are about the potential of NTS-3 to add a layer of resilience to the nation’s PNT capabilities. In the past several months he has briefed officials from the Air Force, Space Force and the Department of Transportation. The project has garnered high-level attention, Biersgreen said. NTS-3 will seek to demonstrate next-generation technologies not only in the satellite but also in the ground segment and signal-receiver devices, said Arlen Biersgreen, the NTS-3 program manager at AFRL.īiersgreen in a recent interview said the satellite and ground control system are in the final integration and test campaign. ![]() Meanwhile, delays in the development of modern GPS receivers, according to the Government Accountability Office, have prevented military users from taking advantage of the more secure jam-resistant signals broadcast by GPS 3 satellites.Ĭalvelli has said that the problems experienced by GPS and other military satellites programs led him to write a list of “ space acquisition tenets,” one of which is to “deliver ground before launch.” The GPS next-generation ground system known as OCX was characterized by Calvelli as a “troubled program which is years late and significantly overrun on costs.” The Air Force wants NTS-3 to serve as a model for how to avoid the problems experienced in the Global Positioning System program that for years has come under fire for the management of the ground segment and user equipment procurements. ![]() In this case, “end to end” means the program is equally focused on the ground, space and user segments. ![]() “In fiscal year 2024, we will launch and begin testing of the Navigation Technology Satellite 3, an end-to-end space-based prototype across space, ground, and user equipment segments to improve resiliency in contested environments against jamming and spoofing,” Frank Calvelli, assistant secretary of the Air Force for space acquisition and integration, said April 26 in testimony to the House Armed Services Committee’s strategic forces subcommittee. It’s also seen as a test case for the management of the so-called PNT enterprise, which includes the satellites, the ground system and the receivers that allow users to talk to the satellites. The $250 million experiment led by the Air Force Research Laboratory aims to deliver novel technologies for space-based positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT). Air Force Navigation Technology Satellite-3 - a flight experiment seven years in the making - is undergoing final tests ahead of a projected 2024 launch.Ī lot is riding on this project.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |